Sunday, April 21, 2013

Further Thoughts on
Qigongs

By way of caveats, let
me state up front that the intersection of martial-arts training to TCM
(Traditional Chinese Medicine), in its functional, physical sense, is fairly
recent (in terms of years) and surprising to me.I have no
expertise in TCM and I would opine, on the other hand, that most westerners
(even most Asians, I’d venture) involved in TCM don’t think in the functional
terms that I’m using as a perspective in these essays.The general thrust of my thinking is that the
corpus of TCM was derived from a physical, practical basis and because of the
aspect of an “etheric” (if you will) aspect of TCM and qi, there’s been some
sort of misunderstanding, in many cases, about qi discussions.It seems highly likely that the theories
about strength and qi were the result of a focused interest long, long ago in
how the human body worked.

I’ll try to deal, as
best I can, with some ideas about the origin of the etheric aspects of “qi” in
a future essay, but for now, in this essay, I’ll give my opinions about some
further aspects of qigongs that might help a beginner get his foot in the door.Incidentally, this essay isn’t meant to
discount the sensations, etc., associated with various “qi flows”, and so on…
it’s just that the topic is tangential to the physical aspects that are the
focus in this discussion.

In the immediately previous essay (Breathing Exercises, Yoga,
Balloon-Men, etc.), the idea of conditioning of the body fascia,
connective-tissues, and so on was prominent.In the early essays done on Silk-Reeling and Six Harmonies movement (on
this blog) there were a lot of opinions about connecting the dantian to the
muscle-tendon channels (from which the acupuncture meridians are derived) in
order to control the body.The same
principles apply to qigongs as do silk-reeling movement:control lines from the dantian to the
extremities are developed through the muscle-tendon channels and through the
“mind-intent” control of forces from gravity and the solidity of the ground.

Qigongs like the Yi Jin Jing are considered the original
mechanism from which most other qigongs and martial-systems using the jing-luo
theory derive.Breath, pressure,
stretch, and movement connected to the dantian are used to strengthen the body
connections delineated by the twelve “channels” or connected tension-lines in
the body.

Qigongs like the Ba Duan Jin, also called the “Eight Pieces
of Brocade”, rely on the development and conditioning of the eight
extraordinary meridians/channels.The “Eight
Pieces of Brocade” aka “Eight Pieces of Silk” is a metaphor for eight
areas/layers/pieces of fascia.

Chinese martial-arts as Qigongs

In a relation to qigongs, almost all Chinese martial-arts
make reference to the interplay of their intrinsic postures and the
meridians/channels of the body.So, as
an example in Xingyi, one of the primary elemental strikes, p’i chuan, is related to the Lung Meridian
and the practice of that strike is supposed to develop areas of the body
affected by the Lung Meridian (perhaps by just rubbing one arm on top of the
Lung channel in the other arm).If you
think about it, the idea of developing meridians/channels in Xingyi or other
Chinese martial-arts is the same basic idea in the movements of almost all
qigongs: the various postures and movements relate to the development of
specific channels/meridians of the body.

Yoga’s postures were almost certainly aspects of this same general
principles, originally, because there are too many parallels to pass off as
coincidence.

Developing a few
examples in qigong usage

Knowing what meridians or channels are associated with the
various postures or movements in a qigong (or martial-art movement) can help you
clarify a qigong-related movement.So
instead of just going through a nice series of “flowing motions” that look
particularly fetching and exotic when done in a white silk suit, you can
examine how you take a particular meridian/channel and condition it with
relaxed stretch, pressure, jin, dantian-movement, and so on.Developing and working a meridian/channel in
this manner is an additive method to needling or tuina/shiatsu manipulation of
the channels/meridians.

As has been emphasized before, you have to have a physical
connection from the dantian/hara to the hands or feet to control the extremities
with the dantian. However, first some
feel for the ‘suit’, through the breathing and stretching and other exercises
mentioned in the previous essay, needs to be developed. It takes a while to develop this kind of
connection, so therefore it’s important to always keep a light stretch-connection
from the dantian or mingmen to the hands and feet while learning to move with
the dantian and practicing your qigong.

You have to have a physical connection from your
dantian/hara to an opponent’s center, in martial-applications, so you have to
learn to maintain that connection, also. Think how many times you’ve heard an
instructor say “push harder” or “grab tighter”… that’s to help him get a
connection through bone (yang qi) or connective-tissue (yin-qi) to your center.

It really only takes a couple of months to begin feeling the
connectivity of the ‘suit’, but some parts of the ‘suit’ develop more slowly
than others.The hands and fingers and
arms tend to be the first places where ‘suit’ (really, a part of the qi)
develops and you can feel the tensile/elastic connection.The legs tend to be the last places to
develop where you can feel the connections, and so on.

As you breathe in, particularly while using
reverse-breathing, you can feel a pulling inward from the extremities of the “suit”.Different channel/meridians (but not all of
them) begin or end at the tips of the fingers or toes. Often, you will be “breathing
in the qi” from a specific point, but generally, in my opinion, you’ll get
satisfactory development of the ‘suit’ and channels by just doing general
reverse-breath inhale (keep it light!) while staying slightly stretched
out.Gradually, the defined feeling of
the channels will appear.

Specific areas of the body can be conditioned by physically
stretching the area prior to the inhale.For instance, if you’re trying to develop the front of the ‘suit’, arch
slightly backward and move the arms backward as you’re breathing in to
physically heighten the amount of stretch.As you exhale, visualize letting the slight stretch from breath and
position relaxing toward the dantian (“relaxing” in the sense that a rubber
band “relaxes” when you let one end of it go).

If you’re attempting to strengthen the sinus and lungs, to
use and example that was mentioned in the previous essay, look upward and
elongate the neck slightly during the inhale.Think of “breathing qi in through the Yintang point”, pulling or
stretching the elastic connection from the Yintang point (between the eyebrows)
toward the lungs.Then, on the exhale,
let the elongation relax toward and into the dantian.The visualization and “breathing inward” will
quickly develop into a slight tension or pulling feeling.

Another example might be where you exercise the connective
tissue within the abdominal cavity by stretching it upward upon inhale, in a
health-oriented qigong.Try to somewhat vertically
separate the internal body components of the upper thorax from the abdominal
cavity and notice the stretch that you induce in the connective tissues in the
abdominal area.

Along the “suit” of the human figure the general rule is
that during the inhale the tissues contract/pull in toward the dantian on the
inside and lower areas/channels of the limbs as you “breathe the qi in”; then
the “qi flow” returns back along the outer/upper/back areas of the limbs as you
“exhale the qi”.There is always an
overall feeling of tensile-elasticity relaxing toward the dantian, the central
controlling point of the body, upon exhale.

“Qi flow” and tensile-elastic changes during movement and
breathing are strongly related.The
positions and movements that most efficiently coordinate with the overall map
of tensile connections and contractions have much to do with the basic logic of
the “channel” system that accords with TCM theory.Discussions about “spiraling” and “winding”
also have to do with tracking the “qi flow” as the points of maximum tension
move along the spirals caused by the interplay of front- and back-suit on a
body with limbs that developed originally from a cylindrical origin.

Static Holding Example

As a last example from which to illustrate a general point
about static use and training of channels, let’s use the odd-looking paths of
channels/meridians seen on the head.After you have done a couple of months (or more) of persistent ‘suit’
development with breath and stretch (don’t overdo it; get your physician’s
approval; keep it light and quit at the first signs of a headache), you should
be able to do a standing posture of the “tree hugging” variety and relax,
allowing the tensile connection of the shoulders and arms to be held by the
endpoints of the channels on the head.

Slightly elongating the head upward will actually allow the tensile
channels on the tops of the arms and shoulders to be held by the tensile
channels at the sides of the head.Two
of the channels most frequently coming into play would be Large Intestine and
Sanjiao.The suit along the back and
fronts of the body are also aided by lightly keeping the head up (remember that
the dantian cannot move the extremities without a connection of some sort).And of course, the breathing during a
statically-held posture is used to constantly tension and release the ‘suit’,
while pressure increases and decreases within the “balloon man”.

Two of the holding channels involved in 'tree hugging' posture.

As mentioned in previous essays, the classical perspective
of the body’s strength is that it develops largely by converting and using the
solidity of the ground and the downward pull of weight.Extraneous usage of muscle for strength is to
be avoided where possible, in the classical view.The bones propagate the solidity of the
ground upward through the configurations of the body’s frame; the muscle-tendon
channels control the opening and closing of the frame.Generally speaking, the tensions of the “closing”
(gravity-related) channels is somewhat more than the tensions in the “opening”
channels, often at about a 70-30 or a 60-40 ratio.

As you turn and twist you can feel the various tension lines
of the suit come into play as they hold the body against gravity or convey some
other necessary tension in order to maintain structural integrity.Bear in mind that various muscle-tendon
meridians work together as needed in order to do something, so often you can
feel the tension-play of two or more muscle-tendon channels come into play as
you move.The dantian is the mediator of
which channels are used and it is the overall manipulator of the body via the
channels and skin of the ‘suit’ (metaphorically like the skin of a Balloon
Man).

Stretching, pressure, tensions, contradictory jins,
dantian-control, etc., are practiced in qigongs, but the general rule is to
relax and not to overly-maintain artificial tensions or contradictions.In some ‘hard’ versions of occasional arts,
you’ll see constantly maintained tensions, but generally these are not
following the classical admonitions if they are done with overt tension (“hard
qi” development).There is a difference
between muscular tension and jin tensions.Relax, but stay connected.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Breathing Exercises,
Yoga, Balloon-Men, etc.

Basic Information
related to qigongs, stretching, packing, etc.

The connective tissue or collagen-based tissues of the body
run through everything in the body tissues, except for the teeth (the bones
have a lot of collagen in them).Even muscles
have a lot of connective tissue around and within them: think of the idea that
if you removed the meat cells from the muscles, you’d have an empty,
fine-filament net made out of connective tissue.

Generally speaking, the main idea in strengthening the connective
tissues and tendons is to stretch, stress, and hold them.In other words, by manipulating (including
twisting) various fasciae in the body, you can strengthen them.Holding a stretched tissue in position helps
to strengthen it; this is the core idea of a lot of various standing postures.You can also strengthen the fascia tissues in
and around organs by stretching, stressing with internal pressures, twisting,
holding, and so on.

The various Asian breathing and postural methods have a lot
to do with the idea of strengthening the connective tissues, for the most part,
although there is more to than that, of course.There are some more sophisticated aspects of breath and posture
training, but this essay is simply meant to provide some baseline information
on breath-related training and not go into much more than a general overview.Like other exercises, breath training can be
overdone and thus be potentially injurious, so it’s better to have a
knowledgeable trainer and regular medical monitoring.

Many Qigongs, but only
a few principles

In Asia there are a number of variations on the breathing
and conditioning approaches and there are a number of different preferences for
the postures that are used.The general
idea in a qigong (including Yoga styles), though, is to condition the body via
an approach focused on the fascia (including the fascia contained in muscle) and
to use a set of sequential postures that most adequately addresses all of the
body areas, internally and externally.Relaxing physically and mentally is usually a part of these exercises,
but not always…. we’ll simply assume the relaxing part of the discussion and
limit this essay to an understanding of the basic physical aspects.An additional aspect of good and complete
qigongs is the use of “intent” or jin forces (see previous essays).

Many people think that a qigong (and any good Asian
martial-art which is based on qigong principles) is a series of movements which
somehow imbue benefits just from the sequence of postures.In much the same way, many people think that
the ‘magic’ of a Taiji form is in the sequence and choreography, as well.In actuality, the benefits come from how the
body is managed during the sequence.In
other words, a qigong, a Taiji form, etc., is a type of workout regimen in
which the body is moved and conditioned in specific ways.

The fact that the actual workout part is difficult to see
has led many people to focus on the choreography and to miss what is really
going on in qigong-related exercises and martial-arts.To be fair, the “how-to-do” of the body
mechanics, qi, jin, dantian, etc., is often not shared with everyone by the
real experts, so focusing on the choreography is an easy mistake to make.

Naturally, every proficient practitioner has a concept of
the ideal qigong workout/regimen in terms of conditioning components, efficacy,
how things should be done, which areas of the body are conditioned in what
order, and so forth… so there are a great number of opinions about the best
qigong, yoga set, or similar breath-related exercises.Some qigongs contain training components that
are variations and/or improvements on the components in other qigongs, but an
understanding of the basics will help to pick and choose the appropriate one
for personal use.The point to remember
is that even though there are many seemingly different breath-related
exercises, they all actually revolve around only a few simple principles.For instance, the Ba Duan Jin, the Yi Jin
Jing, and old Yoga exercises are all related, in principle.

You don’t need to learn a lot of forms… one form done
correctly can contain all the training methods that are needed.

Two ancient Japanese statues portraying the gods of Inhale and Exhale

Concentrating the
Breath and Developing the Suit

The two basic aspects of breath-related exercises to bear in
mind are:

(1.) The
stretch/stress training of the tendons and fascia, including holding positions.

(2.) Building up your pressure ability in the dantian.Gradually both of these conditionings are
spread to encompass all of the body, but let’s just leave the discussion at how
to get started and the ideas behind the practices.

Many qigongs and neigongs (a neigong is a more focused
version of a qigong) first start off by bringing inhaled pressure to various
parts of the body and manipulating the body and the pressure.Quite possibly, though, time can be saved by jumping
to first how breath can be used to pull in the areas of the “suit” (see the
essay on Silk Reeling and Six Harmonies Movement for a discussion of the ‘suit’
model).Let’s try to work our way
through an example in order feel how the breath pulls in the ‘suit’ and then
we’ll discuss pressure.

There are basically two major categories of breathing:
Natural Breathing, in which a deep abdominal inhale is allowed to push out the
belly/abdomen and kidney area; Reverse
Breathing, in which an inhale is somewhat contained by holding in the abdomen
and perineum areas.Although both types
of breathing have conditioning benefits and both are used, reverse-breathing is
the classical hallmark of much of the martial breathing exercises.

Preliminary Exercise to
feel “Suit”

Stand upright (head pushed lightly upward) with the arms
stretched out to the sides, palms to front and slightly up, fingers straight
and perhaps even bent slightly backward.Inhale through the nose while pulling the belly slightly in and try to
pressurize the abdominal area, even down to the perineum.If you pay attention to your finger/hand
area, you should feel a slight pull or contraction in that area.That’s the feeling you’re looking for: a
contraction/pull that is related to an inhale.It is a slight pulling, almost subcutaneous, and ultimately you’d like
to lightly do variations of this type of conditioning until you can feel a
slight pull all over the body and a slight increase in pressure inside the body
with every breath that you take.Your
breath “pulls the qi in” and the type of breathing that uses this slight
pull-in of the abdomen is, as mentioned before, “reverse breathing”.

You can garner similar sensations and effects of the ‘suit’
pulling inward by trying these variations:

1.Standing in the
same outstretched position as above, begin your reverse-breathing inhale while
slightly pulling in the belly area, but stop actually inhaling air at about 2/3
of a breath and attempt to pull the rest of the air in through the pores in
your skin.You should feel a contraction
of the skin from this visualization.This is elementary “skin breathing” and it causes a contraction that can
be felt.

2.Again, stand in
the same outstretched position and use a reverse-breath to inhale about 2/3 of
the way, but then try to pull the rest of the breath in through the tips of the
fingers, toes, elbows, knees, shoulders, etc.Again, you should have a similar pulling sensation, but this
visualization is just another variation.A similar variation has you imagining that the inhaled pressure is
squeezing your bones.All of these
visualization methods induce a pulling and pressure-like feeling and
conditioning of the ‘suit’.

Note that by first stretching the body or an area of the body
which you want to condition, it is much easier to effect the pulling
sensation.Therefore, it’s always best
to maintain a slightly stretched posture while doing qigongs/yoga/etc., or to
bend in such a way as to pre-stretch the area you want to condition with your
inhale.

At first only worry about progressing with the goal to
spread the ability to pull various areas of the ‘suit’ at will.Keep the muscles very relaxed in order to
work on the suit and not involve any muscle tension.Later, with some qualified advice, you might
add contraction of the suit as a step, or even some judicious muscular tension
if your art is more of a Shaolin variety.Be careful, though, because it’s easy to do things wrong or to go off on
a training tangent where you waste a lot of time and you have a difficult time
returning to the path.

The pulling sensation (and pressure components),
incidentally, is part of the conditioning that results in a skin that is
difficult to cut or puncture.Hence,
some of the old qi tricks about spear points on throats, beds of nails, hooks
in skin (seen all throughout Asia) as parts of religious and training rites,
and so on.Since the skin actually
contracts minutely on the inhale, some people use a well-trained suit in the
hand to lift smooth, dry objects like a small mirror, a polished knife blade,
etc.They put their hand on the object
and quietly inhale to initiate the adherence. It’s a form of “sticking” power.The traveling Beijing Acrobats used to have a
guy that demonstrated this trick on a water-cooler bottle laid on its side.

Another example would be the previously-mentioned idea of
inhaling while pushing the face upward in order to tension and strengthen the
connective tissues between the lungs and the sinuses.Over a period of time, some sinus conditions
can be favorably assisted by this type of “qi” exercise for the sinuses because
it effects an actual conditioning of the tissues.

Still another example is the near-titillating qigong/neigong
which is famously pictured with some male practitioner hanging a large rock
from his genitalia.The basic idea is
the same as the sinus example and many others: a pulling sensation is
established via breath-training and then the hold and stretch is practiced
until the tissues are conditioned.To
hold a contraction/tension while returning to normal breathing is a skill that
comes with time.

Basic Pressure and
Tensioning

As you inhale with a reverse breath, pressure builds up in
the abdominal area, or in other areas you may choose to focus on after you have
some practice and experience behind you. Gradually, you should also begin inflating the
kidney area as part of the inhale. One
of the old, commonly-heard sayings about qigongs was “first, concentrate the qi
behind the navel”, or something along those lines.This is a reference to the abdominal pressure
and condition developed from breathing exercises.

The ‘suit’ also contracts slightly with each breath, after
it has been trained for a while.So
within the body there are stresses caused by the increase in pressure and by
the pulling inward of the suit during inhales.These stresses condition the connective tissue and also massage the
organs and other body tissues.Because
each inhale pulls inward on the body (and the body slightly pressurizes), the
bones are also lightly pulled and compressed inward with an inhale. Over time,
as has been noted for centuries in Chinese martial lore, the bones tend to
become denser because the stressing causes some bone growth.As your ability to bring the slight tension
associated with an inhale (and the resultant slight pressure within the body)
increases, you’ll notice that the idea of a “Balloon Man” is fairly good
descriptor.

“Locks”

In concert with the “Balloon Man” idea, the slight
pressurization and pulling in of the ‘suit’ strengthens and assists the body’s
connections.Naturally a weak spot in a
balloon would weaken the overall integrity of the balloon and analogously in
the Balloon Man, weak areas in the structure can cause a loss of
integrity.In the human-shaped “balloon”,
the two major weak areas are the mouth and the anus.For this reason, the mouth is normally kept
closed (tongue touching palate behind upper front teeth) and the anus/perineum
region is normally slightly pulled up in order to counter any bulging and loss
of integrity in that area.So we have
three pressure related actions that are done in many/most breathing excercises:
pull in/up the perineum/anus area of the pelvic floor in order to keep that
area from expanding under pressure, pull in the abdominal area during inhale in
order to assist in developing a light pressure, and if you’re doing
a pressure-hold in more advanced breathing exercises, tuck the chin as an aid
to prevent pressure from building up in the head.These three movements are the same in Chinese
qigongs and Yogic locks (bhandas).While
there are much more exotic-sounding “energy” reasons often attached to
descriptions of Yogic bhandas, it seems probable that their origin was based
upon the manipulation of pressures while conditioning the body.A lot of modern yoga seems to be missing an
understanding of internal conditioning of the fascia via the pressure
methodology.

I know of some groups of people who use fairly high
breath-induced pressures to develop an “Iron Shirt”, the ability to withstand
blows, and so on. Some of these people
have gone so far into pressure artifacts that they have induced health-related
problems.The point being that there are
training cautions; a person should rely on expert advice and common sense in
all of the types of training that we do.

Movement as part of
Qigongs

Several previous essays have dealt with movement,
muscle-tendon channels, dantian usage, etc., and the movement of Open and
Close.A traditional qigong is going to
include movements that are based around Open and Close, using the power of
Gravity, the use of mind-intent jin, and the use of the dantian to control the
body through its ‘suit’ connection.

Usually movement within a qigong begins with the body
expanding and opening with the inhale assisting the opening movement.An exhale accompanies and assists the closing
and contraction of the body.As a person
progresses in development, the role of breathing changes somewhat and the focus
is more toward pressurizing and tensioning the suit on the inhale and the
exhale assists in the closing and contraction associated with the exertion of
power.Exhale when exerting power,
although there are some slight modifications to this idea as a person becomes
further advanced.Sometimes the inhale
while tensioning the ‘suit’ and exhaling on the exertion of strength goes
beyond the usage in the sense of a “qigong” and becomes a more muscular “dynamic
tensioning” exercise; the two things should not be confused.

There are traditionally only the two main forces which
derive from gravity: upward forces based upon the solidity of the ground being
propagated by the body’s structure and downward forces which derive from
gravity.Horizontal forces in the body
are actually composed of the Up and Down forces working at angles through the
body frame.Traditionally, then, there
are six primary directions: Up, Down, Frontward and Backward from the body, and
out and in to the sides of the body.A
good qigong will usually address body movement in those six directions.Other postures are usually for development
and conditioning of tissues within the body and externally, as well.

Here is a good example of a basic qigong; qigongs similar to
this are done in many styles: